Somewhere in the jungle, there was a big lake, and in it lived all kinds of water creatures. A heron also lived there. He had grown old and had no strength left to catch the fishes. Because he was starving, he had become lean.
One day, he came to the edge of the pond and began to cry loudly, shedding his tears like pearls. A crab came up to him (a number of fishes were also with him) and asked sympathetically, “Uncle! Are you alright? Why aren’t you eating today and why are you crying? Why these sighs?”
“Ah, child,” replied the heron, “I have decided to renounce the world. I have been a fish-eater but now I wouldn’t touch them even if they come near me, for I have undertaken a fast unto death.”
“What is the reason for your renunciation?” the crab asked him.
“Well,” said the heron, “I was born in this pond and it is here I’ve grown old. Now I have heard that there will be no rain here for the next twelve years.”
“Where have you heard that?” exclaimed the crab.
“From the mouth of an astrologer,” said the heron. “He said that it is written in an astrological book that, due to the planetary positions, there will be no rain for twelve years. There’s not much water in this pond now, it will get less and less and in the end, it will dry up completely. Consequently, without water, the water creatures I grew up with and played games with will die. I cannot bear to be separated from them. That’s why I’ve taken on this fast unto death. The water creatures of the small ponds are being evacuated to larger ones by their relatives, while the tortoises, crocodiles, and the bigger animals are going elsewhere on their own. But the water creatures here don’t seem to care. I am crying because everything will be completely wiped out.”
The crab told this to the other water creatures. All the crabs, fishes, tortoises, and everybody were in a state of panic. They went to the heron and said, “Is there no way out? Can’t we protect ourselves against this disaster?”
“Well,” said the heron, “not far from here is a lake, full of water. Even if there was no rain for twenty-four years, this lake, which is covered with lotus flowers, will never dry up. If somebody rides on my back I can take him there.”
And, in this way, he gained their confidence. They gathered round him, crying, “Uncle! Father! Brother! Me first! Me first! Please!” The wicked heron took them, one by one, on his back. When he had flown a little away, he would smash them against a rock and eat them to his heart’s content. When he got back, he would deliver false messages to their relatives.
One day the crab said to the heron, “Uncle, I was friends with you first and yet you take the others before me. Now save my life too.” When he heard this, the heron thought to himself, “I am tired of eating fish every day. To change the monotony of the food, I’ll eat this crab today.” And so he took the crab on his back and carried him to the rock where he had killed the fishes. The crab recognized the heap of bones and the skeletons of the fishes and understood everything. But calmly he said to the heron, “Uncle! Say, how far is this pond? You must be tired of carrying me. I am very heavy.” The heron thought to himself, “Now this dumb water creature is in my power, he cannot escape my clutches.” So, with a smirk, he said to the crab, “Crab, where could there be another pond? This trip is for my food. I am going to smash you against this rock and eat you.”
As soon as the heron had said this, the crab put his claws round the white, lotus-like neck of the heron and strangled him to death. The crab slowly dragged the neck back to the pond. All the water dwellers gathered round him and began to ask, “Crab, why are you back? And why hasn’t uncle returned with you? Why is he wasting time? We are all impatient for a chance to be taken.”
Then the crab laughed and said, “You fools! That swindler was not taking the water creatures to any pond; he was smashing them against a rock, not far from here, and eating them. I was destined to stay alive and understood what he was up to. I killed the trickster and I’ve brought back his neck. Now there’s no need to worry. We are safe.”
“That’s why I said,” continued the jackal, “a greedy heron, who was feeding on large, medium, and small-sized fishes, was killed by a mere crab.”
After listening to this, the crow said, “Friend, tell us how we can kill the wicked cobra.”
“Well,” said the jackal, “go to a city that is the capital of a kingdom. Visit the house of some wealthy man, a minister or someone, and see if they have been careless enough to leave a gold chain or a necklace lying about. Pick it up, and making sure that the servants are watching you, fly off slowly with it and drop it in the hollow of the tree where the snake lives. When the servants run after you to get the necklace back, they’ll see the snake and it’s certain they’ll kill him.”
The crows decided to take the jackal’s advice and flew off. As they were flying, the female noticed a lake, in which the women of the harem were swimming. They had left gold and pearl necklaces with their clothes on the bank of the lake. The female crow picked up a gold chain in her beak and started flying slowly to her nest.
When the eunuchs saw this, they picked up their sticks and started running after the female crow. She let the gold chain fall near the hollow of the tree where the snake lived and seated herself on a tree nearby. When the king’s servants arrived on the scene, they were confronted by a snake with a swelling hood, before the hollow of the tree. They killed him with sticks, recovered the gold chain, and returned home. And the crows lived happily ever after.
“And so,” continued Damanaka, “that’s why, I said: ‘What cannot be achieved by force, Can be achieved through deceit.’
“Nothing in this world is impossible for a clever man. Because he was clever, the hare killed a mighty lion living in the jungle.”
“How was that?” asked Karataka.
And Damanaka told: THE STORY OF THE LION AND THE HARE